WAR TOPICS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 260, 20 January 1941, Page 2

WAR TOPICS

ba m &eacon

PATRIOTIC PARCELS 150,,000 HELI> UP IN SPAIN CONGESTION OF TRANSPORT The British Red Cross is gravely' perturbed because 150,000 parcels of food, tobacco and comforts, for 44,000 British prisoners of war in •Germany, including a few Australian airmen, have been long held up through transport congestion in Spain. The Red Cross already has spent £822,000 for food, parcels for the prisoners, and has ordered another £700,000 worth, but it cannot learn whether the parcels are reaching their destinations. The Red Cross has sent 303,000 parcels to Germany since July 27, and also has provided 47,000 pairs of boots, sets of underwear,. blankets, 9700 parcels of tobacco, and 13,000 parcels of invalid comforts for the wounded. It allocated £10,000 for the purchase of food in the Balkans, but supplies there are meagre. It, therefore, sent 300 tons of food from Switzerland. EUROPE'S RATIONS POSITION PRIOR TO WINTER Indications of the true position of food supplies in Europe are' given from time to time by official ration announcements. Marked chan-; ges have occurred. German rations have increased in some lines, while in countries occupied by the Nazis, reductions have been enforced, evidence of the "looting" through which the "pure Aryan" has fed himself at the expense of poesies he regards as "his racial inferiors. Ration information from Europe, corrected up to the end of October, shows the following maximum quan tities for one person for a week (though it does not follow that people can obtain them) :■ —• Geramny: 80oz,. meat sugar Boz, fats 9%0z, coffee 3y 2 oz (substitute). German Protectorate: Bread 440z meat Boz, sugar 10%oz, fats 5%0Z, coffee (substitute). Italy: Sugar 4V 2 oz, fats (butter, olive oil or lard) 7oz, coffee, only in hospitals and the army). Poland: Bread 620z, meat 9oz, sugar 5%0z, fats (butter) 2 1 / 4oz. France-: Bread 87oz, meat 12%0z sugar fats ,margarine or vege table oil) coffee 3oz (mixture) . Belgium: Bread 58oz, sugar 7%0z fats coffee 3oz. Denmark: Bread 17%0z white and rye, sugar 13oz, fats 4oz (mar garine), coffee loz. Netherlands: Bread 71oz white or 89oz rye, meat 17%0z, sugar 9oz, fats 9oz, coffee l%oz. For comparison the case of Switzerland is cited. Bread, meat and coffee are not subject to ration, but each person is allowed 17%0z of sugar and 9oz of edible fat or oil in each week. German policy is governed by two major considerations: (a) To avoid shocking too brus-i quely, by the sudden lowering of standards of living, people brought under Nazi "protection"; (b) Influence of the blockade and of transport problems in Europe. UNLESS CANS NEW GERMAN INDUSTRY Extensive research into the manufacture of Unless cans for use in the preservation of meat and vegetables has resulted in large-scale production of a new type ol' can in Germany, according to a report from the office of the American Commercial Attache, Berlin. The Unless cans are made of bright strip-steel, basic steel being used instead of the open hearth product commonly employed in the manufacture of tin plate. The tops and bottoms of the cans are cut in tlie usual manner, and before being i assembled the parts are cleansed i and rust-proofed by a phospbating i process which takes f~om two to - three minutes. The can., mparts ar.§« . LV'P dipped • n enamel and < dried, -and the bottoms, seamed to ! the can - ] (

WHAT WILL HE DO?

COURSES OPEN TO HITLER MENACE OK THINGS TO COM 1-3 Considering the menace of things' to come— I lie German invasion threat and Nazi aid to 11a 1 3 T—military commentators in London believe that the fate of Italy cannot leave Hitler unmoved, hut they | think it is probable that there is a conflict of opinion in Berlin oil the | course to pursue. Nobody is other than sure that tlie Germans will develop a plan. Seven courses are seen to be open to Hitler, as follows-:— 1. A move from Trieste to help the Italians in Albania. 2. A move through the Balkans 3. To occupy Italy from the north or through France. 4. To reinforce the Italians by troop-carrying planes. 5. A march on Gibraltar through Spain. 6. To cencentratc on naval action against the passage into the Medi-» terranean of British supplies l'rom 'the west. 7. An attack, on Britain to reduce aid to the Imperial Anny of the Nile. None of these, courses would be easy. Britain has shown in a spectacular fashion by the bombardment of Valona that her Fleet can enter the Adriatic. Only a limited number .of troop-carrj*ing planes would be available to reinforce the Italians, while the Balkans arc no place for a campaign in the winter. For Hitler to march into Ttaly or Spain might be to meet hostile populations. Military commentators generally think that Hitler may lean towards intensifying his attack against Britain for the double purpose of weakening his own particular opponent and .aiding Italy by fully containing Britain and seeking to close the Straits of Gibraltar.

There is a belief that Spain is being sounded again regarding her atiitude towards the passage south of German troops. INFLATION HORRORS REFUGEE'S EXPERIENCES As a refugee from Germany, may I be allowed to pietlire some of the horrors of inflation? wrote a Gippsland woman recently to the editor of a Melbourne paper. It began there with a slow increase in prices in 1916.- By 192223 inflation was at its height with prices increasing from day to day and, in the end,, from morning to afternoon, according to the decaj r of the currency. Prices were sometimes twice as much as on the previous day, and went up to the millions and billions when, in November, 192:5, at its climax four billion to Jive billion marks had to be given for £1 sterling. Salaries and wages were increased every few days, but they never could catch up with prices. In the end, they weve paid daily, and everybody trie-i to exchange them as speedily as possible into goods, but their purchasing power became less and less and the misery of the middle-class arid of factory workers

was tremendous. People who previously had a good living could no longer feed their families. All savings and all prem~ iums on insurances were lost. Although there might have been some financiers who profiteered from inflation, lots of well-to-do and wealthy families losi; their funds completely and had to depend on charities.

As a result cl the inflation years, after the re-establishment of the currency Germany had the greatest unemployment rate in its history. About 6,500,000 people Were out of work, some of them for years, because capital had been lost by inflation; loans were no longer Available.

everything. Saw several places where they work bronze and brass making hinges and easement slays. Each trade or profession is in a